• imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com
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    27 days ago

    Lincoln didn’t have a chance to end slavery either but found a way to get it done… even without immunity to do virtually anything, as an official act of the President, to compel cooperation.

    • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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      27 days ago

      Lincoln kind of ended slavery, but only in a territory he was at war with. He never actually did anything through standard political means. In fact he wasn’t even opposed to slavery, he just used abolition to help preserve the union. The true end of slavery in america occurred with a constitutional amendment.

      • itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works
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        27 days ago

        What do you mean he never did anything? He was a key reason for that amendment. Also his position on it wasn’t so static, just look at what Fredrick Douglass had to say about him. Lincoln was a key catalyst for helping to move the country forward on slavery and to say otherwise really feels like postwar Confederate speak. He wasn’t perfect, but I’d struggle to think of anyone else I’d take over him as president at that time.

        • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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          26 days ago

          He was the best possible man to be president at that time, my point really is just that the president alone cannot make massive changes like that. I probably could have worded that better.

          • njm1314@lemmy.world
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            26 days ago

            But to his point though, it is only through Lincoln’s actions that massive changed happened. If the Emancipation Proclamation isn’t given then there’s no way the 13th Amendment ever comes to pass, to say nothing of the immense lobbying effort he put into the passage of the amendment. There are plenty of things Biden could do right now that would cause Congress to have to act. As well as incrementally help actual Americans, something Biden has trouble if not doing then at least advertising.

            Also it is completely and utterly inaccurate to say Lincoln wasn’t opposed to slavery. He said so many times. To suggest otherwise is a bald-faced lie